I parted ways with my legal representative in Ukraine this week. Yes, he’s a great guy and we’ll probably always be friends, but professionally, I don’t think we’d be seeing each other again. It wasn’t a drawn-out fight. It was more of a fizzle when we both realized we weren’t what the other needed. Sometimes…
Author: Tessa van Niekerk
Rebuilding my collection, one gemstone at a time
Over the past ten years, I have made serious judgment errors. And one of them cost me almost my entire gemstone collection, none of which I can replace. A few weeks ago, I decided to start rebuilding a collection, slowly but surely. I won’t get the same gemstones or deals, but I’m also not the…
Difficult decisions
Life is all about making choices, and then living with the consequence of those choices. Some of those choices are easy and some are not. And then there are choices that you simply can’t make! Right now, I am at one of those decision points. On the one hand, I have my family, friends, career,…
A touch of rebellion
I teach self-reliance, the world’s most subversive practice. I teach people how to grow their own food, which is shockingly subversive. So, yes, it’s seditious. But it’s peaceful sedition.Bill Mollison When I first heard these words, spoken by David Holmgren, I had to look up the word “sedition.” Even as a person fluent in English,…
All (red) taped up and nowhere to go
I have an issue. I want to qualify for a D-style visa in Ukraine, enabling me to run a small business as a backyard farmer, and put out some video content every week or so. However, I am stuck in some seriously sticky red tape. It’s a case of being neither here nor there. On…
Extinguishing the Fires in the Country of My Heart
Once again, this morning, Dnipro is under attack by the dark forces from orcistan. People are dead and wounded and there is damage to property worth millions! Of any decent currency! Not for the first time I wish for the power of telekinesis/portation to deflect the missiles and install the anti-air batteries that are slowly…
How I am reaching my word count by keeping up my blog
This July I have chosen to be unconventional. Yes, I know that the idea of a Novel Writing Month is to – well – write a novel, but I have decided that I would do just as well to get my word count up by working on this blog, instead. After all, the more posts…
X has spoken!
I put out a question on Social Media today: I need advice. How does one overcome the “fear of failing” part of making a major life change? Or is it simply a matter of closing your eyes and jumping? @gterplaasboer, on Twitter And do you know what the majority (100%) of the responses were? JUST…
The three most important conditions for my move to Ukraine
The downside to living in the Information Age is the real risk of information overload. Where in the past my detractors might have been well-meaning relatives and friends, now there are Internet Experts who write blogs and tell me how, why, and in what order to live my life so as not to fail spectacularly….
It finally hurts enough!
There’s a story that I’ve heard told at a few business conferences before, about a young salesman that goes to visit a prospective client on the farm. While they are having coffee, the young man notices the family basset hound howling non-stop. “Why is the dog howling like that?” he wanted to know. “Oh, him,”…